I suppose it should come as no surprise to me that my girls are more on the ball than I am. I always believed this wouldn’t happen until they were older.
Here’s how I imagined it.
Someday, I would see one of them walking along as a successful mother and realize she doesn’t forget diapers, sunscreen, and wipes, and she actually uses the calendar she has made for herself. And then in that moment, I would realize proudly, with a tear in my eye, ‘hey she’s more on the ball than I am.’
Now back to reality. Of course that’s not how it happened at all.
Yesterday we all left the house in a big, mad, crazy rush and after dropping off kiddos at the school, I spotted Carpool Boy #1’s jacket still resting in the backseat. I had a little shopping to do, so I decided to drop off his jacket at the school on the way back from the store. Everything went smoothly, but when we left the store it came to my attention that the weather had turned really nasty. (thank you, springtime). Black clouds were rolling in, it was drizzling, and the temperature was about 45.
I thought to myself, ‘wow, Carpool Boy #1 really needs this jacket or he’s going to have one bad day at school.” I drove over, and dropped it off, successfully. But on the way home, I started to worry that my own girls probably had no jackets. They were going to have a bad day at school! Visions of their thin, short-clad bodies, shivering in the wind danced through my mind. I wondered if they would huddle against friends for warmth. I thought maybe if they ran fast enough and played hard enough, they wouldn’t really feel the bad weather. I started to feel bad and I started to freak out!
By now I was almost home, and needed to get Miss 4 off to her dance class. My mind was racing with thoughts about how I could get jackets to those girls. (note: the school is 20 minutes away from our house, so just running over there really quickly is not an option). I called My Dear Husband and he said he thought Miss 10 had a jacket in her bag. I figured it was already too late for Miss 6 since kindergarten would be over very soon. That left only the image of a suffering, freezing, hypothermic Miss 8 in my mind.
I texted, called, and left a message for my Mom-in-law and asked her if she would take a coat to the school when she picked up Miss 6. I kept calling until I reached her and then I explained my problem again. She agreed that I could drop off a jacket to her on the way to Miss 4’s dance class and she would in turn drop it off for Miss 8.
Whew! Problem solved. I began to search the house for a Miss 8 jacket. Miss 8 is a notorious jacket misplacer. I searched all the usual spots. Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch.
Then it dawned on me that if Miss 8’s jacket was nowhere to be found, maybe, just possibly, she had it with her. At. School.
I called the school. They called Miss 8’s teacher. Miss 8 did have her jacket!!
And it turns out, not only did Miss 8 and Miss 10 have jackets, Miss 6 also had a jacket in her bag.
Apparently, they all have one small jacket they keep in their bags All The Time in case of bad weather.
Who knew??? Not me! I’m just the psycho panicky Mom!
These girls are so much more on the ball than I am!
